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Under the headline "Drop Dead, Detroit!" published online Monday, Patterson is quoted as recommending people don't stop for gas in the city due to the potential for carjacking. He's also quoted as saying Detroit is an "Indian reservation."

Duggan and City Council President Brenda Jones issued a statement saying they were hoping that Patterson issued an apology. Duggan and Jones said the remarks "were not what you would expect from a regional partner with a vested interest in a strong and healthy Detroit."

Patterson issued this following statement this afternoon:

"I regret that something I said 30 years ago is causing such consternation today. I have worked hard to build good relationships with some of the past mayors of Detroit. I do not intend for The New Yorker article to damage my relationship with Mayor Duggan and I look forward to working with him over the next four years.

"I want to remind Mayor Duggan of what I said at the Big 4 Luncheon at the Auto Show last week and these are my true feelings: That I want to work with him, and I want to make sure that any project that he has that I can be supportive of, to give me a call."

Civil rights leaders also weighed in.

Asked about how Detroit might fix its financial problems, Patterson was quoted as saying: "I made a prediction a long time ago, and it's come to pass. I said, 'What we're gonna do is turn Detroit into an Indian reservation, where we herd all the Indians into the city, build a fence around it, and then throw in the blankets and corn.'"

The Rev. Charles Williams II, Michigan chapter president of the National Action Network, called for an apology. In a statement, Williams said the remarks were "repulsive" — not just because Detroit is a mostly black city, but "because it is also a direct slight to the American Indian who occupied the land before Detroit was Detroit and Oakland County."

Patterson told WWJ-AM this morning he is "furious" about the story; in a radio interview, Patterson called the article "an absolute hatchet job."

Asked about the criticism he is facing from Williams and the National Action Network, Patterson said: "I don't know who that group is. Tell them to get in line."

The New Yorker article's author, Paige Williams, reached Monday by the Detroit Free Press at her home in Boston, said there wasn't an agenda against Patterson.

"Our focus was simply to explore what made Oakland County so successful. That's what we did do. It's a balanced portrait," she said.